National Construction College welcomes improved Ofsted report

The Construction Industry Training Board’s (CITB) National Construction College (NCC) is making “significant progress” in training quality, according to education watchdog Ofsted.

Last year, NCC was labelled as “requiring improvement” following an inspection from Ofsted, highlighting six areas for improvement across four themes: 

The recent monitoring visit found that the first three of these themes have seen “significant progress”, with the final theme seeing “reasonable progress”. 

Kirsty Evans, executive principal of CITB’s NCC, said: “The college has embarked on a journey of improvement and development over the past year. This tremendous outcome is testimony to the efforts of the whole team and reflects the extent to which a quality culture has been embedded in our practices. 

“Our focus now is to build on these improvements for the benefit of our apprentices, our employers and the sector.”

Since last year, NCC’s learner retention rates have increased to more than 80%, with qualification achievement rates currently above the sector average.   

Evans added: “A core focus in our improvement programme has been to revitalise the experience for apprentices and provide them with clearer guidance for career pathways and progression in the construction industry. 

“A strong pipeline of apprentices and construction workers is required to build the millions of homes we need. We have ambitious plans to continue growing our apprenticeship and commercial provision to meet demand from employers and to support the construction industry to have the skills it needs to grow and prosper in what is an exciting time for the industry.”  

Read the full Ofsted monitoring report here.